Strategy for Step 2

[May3Exam]

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Hey guys, I would really appreciate any advice on this topic. I'm a third year doing my rotations. I'm interested in doing ophthalmology. Unfortunately, Step 1 did not go as well as I wanted (227). Therefore I plan on studying my butt off for Step 2 to make up... I plan on taking step 2 in about 7 or 8 months. I already got some of my tough rotations out of the way so I have some time to study. What do you recommend for a study strategy this early? Should I buy the books and start going over them? Should I just subscribe to a questions bank and start working on it? I already looked through old threads and have an idea of what resources to use- but any additional input will be great! Thanks!

I also looked through other threads and it was really inspiring to see people improve so much from step 1 to 2!!

 

[ZekeMD]

Hey guys, I would really appreciate any advice on this topic. I'm a third year doing my rotations. I'm interested in doing ophthalmology. Unfortunately, Step 1 did not go as well as I wanted (227). Therefore I plan on studying my butt off for Step 2 to make up... I plan on taking step 2 in about 7 or 8 months. I already got some of my tough rotations out of the way so I have some time to study. What do you recommend for a study strategy this early? Should I buy the books and start going over them? Should I just subscribe to a questions bank and start working on it? I already looked through old threads and have an idea of what resources to use- but any additional input will be great! Thanks!

I also looked through other threads and it was really inspiring to see people improve so much from step 1 to 2!!

Don't worry about studying yet! Do well in your rotations. That is WAY more important. Plus, doing well on rotations and on shelf exams will prepare you for Step 2. 227 isn't that bad, in fact, it's pretty good.

 

[XoQo]

my advice would be to prepare for your shelf exams as ZekeMD recommended. My own thoughts (hindsight is always 20/20...) would be that:

1.) read about problems your patient has. this is the bare minimum. if you are working with a seizure patient on neuro or a renal failure patient on medicine, you need to know what's going on in terms of appropriate history/exam/workup to write meaningful notes. this will help you with your clinical evals


2.) that being said, you need to also dedicate time DAILY to reading stuff for your shelf. It doesn't have to be a large amount of time. We had a clerkship director tell us that if we could honestly do an hour a day, we'd be above average in his eyes (medicine) since many people end up not doing it. It sucks cuz you're tired but...learning an hour a day is a lot better than cramming for your shelf.

I'd split 30 minutes for your patient and 30 minutes out of shelf review. You can ask your classmates or upperclassmen about what books they liked/didn't like. everybody has their own preference...pick and choose what works for you.



#2 will help you a lot for your shelf exams. Shelf exams are designed by NBME to give your med school a more nationalized way of assessing you and it's supposed to be practice for Step 2.


If you study for, and do well on your shelf exams, Step 2 prep will be a lot easier. You will still end up doing a question bank of sorts (usmleworld is what a lot of people tend to favor, mainly because it kicks you a lot harder than Kaplan does so that CK feels easier) --- but you will have seen the material already once so it's not "learning" for the first time.


best of luck!